Shooting a bow below the minimum factory weight may cause the limb bolts to strip out and have a catastrophic failure of the limb pocket. I say 'may' because it depends on the manufacturer but I feel that most of them engineer in enough safety margin below the minimum that you'd be alright a few pounds lighter, I just wouldn't want to find out the hard way...[:@][X(] Don't do it.

As far as minimum weights for all North American game you've got to take into consideration not so much elk but the toughest critters to penetrate in N.A.; moose and mountain goats, or the long 60 yd. shots at caribou... 50# is certainly adequate to kill either in the right situation but once again, it's not the right situation you need to consider but it's the extreme. I hunt moose, mountain goats and brown bear (not that it takes much to penetrate a brown bear) every year with my 70# bow and 500 grain arrows. Sure I could do it with the average 60# bow and 350 grain arrow but I can comfortably shoot 70# so why not have that extra margin of error? However, it does no good to have a 70# bow that you can't shoot... I'd rather hit a critter in the vitals with 60 lb. ft. of KE rather than miss one with 75. Take an honest look at yourself and what you're going to be doing with the rig and consider the extremes of what you might get into. If you've got the extremes covered then you're plenty fine for every day.